Virgin Galactic Hit with Lawsuit Over Unpaid Invoices, Intellectual Property

The suit claims invoices for work performed totaling $26.4 million have not been paid, despite multiple attempts to resolve the dispute.

Mark Phelps

Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 05:01 PM ET

Verified

Virgin Galactic is in a legal battle with Boeing over intellectual property rights and alleged unpaid bills for work on a replacement for the "Eve" launch aircraft. [Courtesy: Virgin Galactic]

Key Takeaways:

Boeing, through its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, has sued Virgin Galactic for $26.4 million in alleged unpaid bills and misappropriation of trade secrets.
The lawsuit originates from a July 2022 contract for Aurora to design and build two new "mothership" aircraft for Virgin Galactic, a project that halted in May 2023.
Aurora claims work stopped because the desired mothership was not feasible within Virgin Galactic's budget and timeline, and Virgin Galactic refused to destroy proprietary technical data inadvertently shared.
Virgin Galactic denies the allegations, stating the lawsuit is "wrong on the facts and the law" and vowing to vigorously defend itself.

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Boeing, on behalf of its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, filed a lawsuit against Virgin Galactic for alleged unpaid bills and misappropriation of proprietary trade secrets.

According to the March 21 filing, as reported by Spacenews.com, Mojave, California-based Virgin Galactic contracted with Aurora in July 2022 to design and build two new “mothership” aircraft designed to launch Virgin’s suborbital space vehicles. The first was to be delivered in 2025, designed to replace Virgin Galactic’s VMS Eve launch platform.